Just Do It!

if you can, when you can, how you can...

Hi,

After the excitement of announcing issue 14 last week, I've dragged myself through a long work week with the added slump that comes from putting myself out there and having to wait for ‘it’ to actually happen- the writing week, the plans, the editing. I'm excited, and I'm flat, and I'm nervous.

Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, and this interview, seem to have gone a little viral this week, or at least in my particular algorithm. On Monday, I scrolled past a clip of her saying [just write, and read, stop talking about it and do it] and it hit my rejection sensitivity like a freight-train. Was she talking to me? Am I trying to recruit other writers to distract myself from my own words? Like anyone who has read Adichie, I admire her immensely, and so I ruminated on the idea far more than I should have. I should just shut up and write.

This morning, I decided to listen to the interview properly. Her advice is to young writers. She acknowledges that she found a writing community (in which I assume they talk about lot about writing) much later in life. She also remarks on the horrors of not knowing if you're on the ‘right track’ and the dreaded ‘unfinished’ stories. Listening to her properly, I was reminded of why I know that ‘Scribbles’ is a good thing. I will write for it. I will think and create and share and feel very lovely all the while.

None of this negates the fact that I have stopped writing! I see the prompts, do the thinking, romanticise my writing life. But I stopped opening my novel- I'm at a difficult bit! Maybe some people (me) need more accountability, more comeraderie, more structure than others.

Anyway, it really would be lovely to write with you, please feel free to pay what you can- £20 will cover the prompts, write-alongs, working with me on your writing and the magazine when it arrives. Spoiler alert- you may also have your words illustrated.

Reminder:

Join here.

See you soon!

Rachael xx